65-unit housing, office project proposed for Lloyd District

A mixed-used building is proposed for Portland's Lloyd District by Langley Development. (Rendering by Group Mackenzie)

A housing project is being proposed for the Lloyd District in Portland.

The project, proposed by Langley Investments, would put a five-story mixed-use building on a block-long site bounded by Northeast Broadway, Welder Street and Second and Third avenues.

Included in the proposal, which will undergo a design advice request by the city design commission Aug. 2, are 65 residential units, 18,000 square feet of retail space and 22,000 square feet of second-level office space. A credit union bank would take up some of the retail space and all of the second-level office space.

Additionally, the proposal includes 60 spaces of underground parking and 23 spaces of ground-level parking.

The proposed site currently is developed with two business buildings owned by Broadway Furniture and two residential houses. Potentially as part of the project, the buildings and houses would be demolished. However, the project is still in its early planning stages, and whether demolition will be part of the final proposal is unclear, according to Liam Thornton, senior vice president of development for Langley.

The project is the latest in a series of housing developments proposed in the Lloyd District. Earlier this year, Langley proposed to develop a 780-unit, four-tower “superblock” between Northeast Multnomah and Holladay streets. On Tuesday, a pre-application conference was held for a proposed 175-unit building on Northeast Multnomah Street.

One comment

Its always great to see density in this part of town although I’d much prefer the vacant lots be developed before demolishing functioning buildings. But this proposed building is a real eyesore, no two ways about it. It may just be the poor quality of the rendering but from what I can see, the facade has absolutely no rational. It appears random and a very juvenile attempt at what should be a carefully considered building in terms of materiality, rhythm and scale of various elements. An opportunity in this neighborhood should not go to waste on an ugly design like this. Maybe the developer should hire a firm that has experience in mixed-use urban projects, because as far as I know, Group Mackenzie is mostly a Fred Meyer and warehouse firm.